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Italo Gardoni (12 March 1821 – 26 March 1882) was a leading operatic tenor singer from Italy who enjoyed a major international career during the middle decades of the 19th century. Along with Giovanni Mario, Gaetano Fraschini, Enrico Tamberlik and Antonio Giuglini, he was one of the most celebrated Italian tenors of his era.
His voice was not large but it was exceptionally pure toned and sweet, lacking any disruptive vibrato. He sang legato passages with impressive smoothness but he could also dispatch florid music with flair and considerable agility.
Two years later he began teaching in Parma and at his death had become a citizen there.
He made his debut as Roberto Devereux (Donizetti) in Viadana in 1840, and over the following 7 years made his career in France, Italy and Germany.Rosenthal and Warrack (1974), p. 146. In Paris in December 1844 he was Bothwell in the Paris première of Louis Niedermeyer's opera Marie Stuart at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique opposite the soprano Rosine Stoltz,Enciclopedia della Musica (Garzanti – AA.VV.) and was with her again there for the premiere of Michael Balfe's L'étoile de Seville in the following year. See external link Gardoni knew and worked with Balfe, who composed items particularly for him.Basil Walsh, 'Balfe in Italy', Opera Quarterly Vol. 18.4 (Autumn 2002), 484-502. The limpidity and clarity of his voice, and his ravishing upper notes (no less than his youth, charm and elegance) were greatly admired in Paris:. and if he was not ready for all the roles from the repertoires of Adolphe Nourrit and Gilbert Duprez, still (they thought) some Meyerbeer would have suited him well, not least Raoul in Les Huguenots.A. H. Blaze in Revue des Deux Mondes, 15 December 1844, Vol. 8, p 1106ff.[2] Gardoni continued to sing in Paris throughout his career.Elizabeth Forbes, Biographical notice (see external link).
There followed La sonnambula with Mme Castellan (the dramatic soprano who also partnered Lumley's tenore robusto Gaetano Fraschini), and I puritani and L'elisir d'amore (with Castellan and Luigi Lablache), and he rapidly became a great favourite.Lumley Reminiscences, 178-79, 181-82. Gardoni took a minor role in Jenny Lind's London debut in Robert le diable, with Josef Staudigl, Fraschini, Castellan and others, in the presence of Queen Victoria: he partnered Lind in La sonnambula (and La figlia del reggimento?) soon afterwards.Lumley Reminiscences, 185-86, 189. On 22 July 1847 he created the tenor role in Verdi's I masnadieri opposite Lind, Lablache and Filippo Coletti,For two engraved scenes, see 'The Theatres', Illustrated London News 31 July 1847, p. 77 [3](Pdf 4/27). the first two nights being under the composer's baton, and thereafter under Balfe's.Julian Budden, The Operas of Verdi (Cassell), vol 1, p. 314. At the salon of Henry Greville he was associated with Mario, Giulia Grisi, Ciro Pinsuti and others.Charles Santley, Student and Singer. The Reminiscences of Charles Santley (Edward Arnold, London 1892), p. 162.
In the 1848 season he was Lumley's leading tenor. Il barbiere di Siviglia with Sophie Cruvelli and Belletti was followed by the London premiere of Verdi's Attila, with Cruvelli, Velletti and Cuzzani. He sang Gennaro to Cruvelli's Lucrezia Borgia.Lumley Reminiscences, 214-217. Sims Reeves, then attempting to establish his own place on the Italian dramatic stage in London, agreed with Lumley to appear in the lesser role of Carlo in Linda di Chamounix (supporting Eugenia Tadolini) in the hope of playing Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Percy in Anna Bolena and Arturo in I puritani, which were billed for the (sensational) return of Jenny Lind. But Gardoni was cast as Edgardo, and Reeves severed his engagements. There was a cry of 'Sims Reeves' from the gallery as Gardoni sang Edgardo's first cavatina on the opening night.Mrs W. Pitt Byrne & Rachel H. Busk, Gossip of the Century: personal and traditional memories--social, literary, artistic, etc (Downey 1899), 190-94. Read here The situation probably arose through Lind expressing a preference for Gardoni as her partner: obligingly he also stepped in as Carlo.Charles E. Pearce, Sims Reeves: Fifty Years of Music in London (Stanley Paul & Co., London 1924), 115-122. Gardoni now sang Roberto for Lind, but was thought not up to the part.Lumley Reminiscences, 221. But at her final performance at Her Majesty's, in Robert le diable on 10 May 1849 (before a royal and distinguished audience), Gardoni led Jenny Lind onto the stage to receive her rapturous applause.Ferris 2008, p. 93.
After a winter season in St Petersburg, in 1850 he reappeared with Parodi and Frezzolini in a revival of I Capuleti e i Montecchi (as Tebaldo), and pleased his audience by disproving a false report of his death.Lumley Reminiscences, 282-83. June 1850 saw a première of Halévy's La tempesta in which as Fernando he partnered Henriette Sontag's Miranda, Carlotta Grisi's Ariel, Colini's Prospero and the celebrated impersonation of Caliban by Lablache, directed by Balfe. Gossip of the Century (cited above), 167-68. Read here,
Gardoni and the star contralto Marietta Alboni were the lead soloists, in the presence of Queen Isabella II, in the 1850 inaugural performance of La favorita at the Teatro Real in Madrid.See external link .
1851 renewed Gardoni's Gennaro in Lucrezia Borgia. A novelty première, Giulio Alary's Le tre nozze, with Henriette Sontag and Lablache, preceded the more significant L'enfant prodigue of Auber with Sontag, Massol and Coletti. He was with Cruvelli again for a special performance of Michael Balfe's opera I quattro figli.Lumley Reminiscences, 304, 308, . When Reeves and Cruvelli sang Fidelio in 1851, Gardoni led the hand-picked soloists forming the chorus of prisoners on the first night. In Lumley's operatic concerts, also, Reeves, Gardoni and Calzolari formed a 'three tenors' trio for Curschmann's Evviva Baccho, and took part in a triplicated version of Martini's trio Don't tickle me, I pray with Henriette Sontag, Sophie Cruvelli and Jenny Duprez as soprani, and three bassi including Lablache.Pearce 1924, 164. He continued to sing for Lumley through his crisis months of early 1852, and gave a Norma with Cruvelli and Lablache: but after Cruvelli's defection he, too, slipped away from Lumley's Company.Lumley Reminiscences, 335, 342. In 1852 he was with Reeves, Pauline Viardot-Garcia, Louisa Pyne, Charlotte Sainton-Dolby and Karl Formes in first oratorio performances of Dr Bexfield's Israel Restored and Hugh Pearson's Jerusalem at the Norwich Festival.Pearce 1924, 170.
During the later 1850s Gardoni appeared often at Covent Garden, including performances of Alfredo in La traviata for Michael Costa in 1858 and 1859. After Meyerbeer had re-drafted his Ein Feldlager in Schlesien for Paris as L'étoile du nord (1854), an Italian version was presented for the British premiere, at Covent Garden. For this, Meyerbeer added the Act 1 polonaise and the romanza Disperso il crin sul mesto sen for Gardoni in the role of Danilowitz.A. H. Blaze, Revue des Deux Mondes, 1 July 1867 [6] (PDF page 8). Gardoni also took the role of Corentin in the British premiere of Meyerbeer's Dinorah ( Le pardon), at Covent Garden, in 1859,Elizabeth Forbes, Gardoni biography (see external link). in which Chorley praised his 'peasant poltroonery'.Chorley Thirty Years, 314.
In autumn 1864, when the mentally unstable rival tenor Antonio Giuglini took up his doomed St Petersburg engagement, Gardoni joined Mapleson's autumn operatic touring party as principal tenor. (Gardoni had been one of Mapleson's vocal instructors.J. H. Mapleson, The Mapleson Memoirs 1848-1888 (Belford, Clarke & Co, Chicago 1888), Vol. I, p. 2.) Charles Santley called him
'a fine singer, and a much better actor than he generally had credit for. He was a very good Faust and Sir Huon, though the music of the latter did not suit him. In Mireille he was excellent... His voice was pure: he was a handsome man, and in parts which suited him an excellent actor. (He) could sing any kind of music, cantabile or florid.' Santley thought him in many ways the superior of Guiglini.Santley 1892, 211-12.His 1865 Faust was with Thérèse Tietjens, Zélia Trebelli, Junca and Santley.Mapleson 1888, I, 146. In the 1866 season at Her Majesty's, he sang Pilade in a magnificent staging of Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride, opposite Tietjens (Iphigenia), Santley (Oreste) and Édouard Gassier (Thoas) – in which the soloists 'surpassed themselves':Mapleson 1888, I, 95. also he renewed his Corentin ( Dinorah), with Ilma de Murska and Santley (Hoel), greatly to Mapleson's satisfaction.Santley 1892, 240; Mapleson 1888, 94-95. In 1867 he was Ottavio in the Don Giovanni with Christina Nilsson, Tietjens, Sinico, Gassier (the Don) and Santley (Leporello), and his Corentino was repeated.Santley 1892, 250.
Gardoni remained with Mapleson, and in Robert le Diable in 1872 he was Rambaldo to Christine Nilsson's Alice, Pietro Mongini's Roberto, Signor Foli's Bertramo and de Murska's IsabellaHerman Klein, Thirty Years of Musical Life in London (The Century Co., New York 1903), 154.
Gardoni married the daughter of baritone Antonio Tamburini and (his wife) the soprano Marietta Goja.Rosenthal and Warrack, Concise Oxford Dictionary, 'Tamburini' entry. He died in Paris.
The old entry from the Dictionary of Music and Musicians called him a 'tenore di grazia':
'Italo Gardoni possessed what might be called only a moderate voice, but so well, so easily and naturally produced, that it was heard almost to the same advantage in a theatre as in a room. This was especially noticeable when he sang the part of Florestan, in Fidelio, at Covent Garden, after an absence of some duration from the stage. The unaffected grace of his style rendered him as perfect a model for vocal artists as could well be found.
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